PETA targets UNMC after drug mix-up

The University of Nebraska Medical Center now has unwanted attention from a national organization: PETA.UNMC r...

Posted: Mar. 3, 2018 7:58 PM

Updated: Mar. 4, 2018 7:11 AM

The University of Nebraska Medical Center now has unwanted attention from a national organization: PETA.

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UNMC recently discovered one of the drugs in a study involving monkeys was wrong and now PETA has filed a complaint.

Attending veterinarian, Dr. John Bradfield with UNMC said, "We're still fact finding, we're still under investigation as to exactly what happened and how it happened."

But whatever did happen left five of the ten research monkeys dead.

"What happened was just outrageous, this was extreme neglect," said Dr. Alka Chandna with PETA.

UNMC said there was no neglect at all on their part. The manufacturer made a mistake with the drugs and sent the wrong one.

Dr. Bradfield said no animals were harmed as a result of the mix up.

According to both institutions all ten monkeys were injected with the drug cocktail used for HIV research.

Dr. Chandna said the lives of those five monkeys were wasted.

"They were injected with the wrong drug and consequently any data that's going to come from these experiments is entirely useless."

PETA has since filed two complaints with the US Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health.

UNMC said their investigation into what happened should be wrapped up soon then they will have a better idea of how it happened and how to prevent it in the future.

Dr. Bradfield said it took nearly five months for researchers to realize the drug was wrong but once they did they immediately stopped the study and reported themselves to the Animal Care and Use Committee.

UNMC has confirmed the remaining five monkeys involved in the study are fine.